How I almost made a brick

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stenc55

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2010
579
141
My 2 cents..

I was using ICSSGS from 1st RC. But it becomes very laggy after 3-4 weeks, so factory reset every month was necessary. I decided to change ROM.
I installed DOC's v12 ( I assume is is the same Doc that was cooking ROMs for my Omnia, and I was werry pleased with those ROMs). Did wipe, cleaned cache, cleaned Dalvik, formatted /system, flashed ROM, wipe again and it was working. But after two days it was still very laggy (talking about waiting for response for 3-5 seconds) so I wanted something faster. I had choose this Openkang milestone 6.

And then the fun begins.

Downloaded, copied to sd, booted to CWM, all wipes, flashed ROM, flashed gapps and went to bootloop. 3 button combo worked only for download mode, not for entering CWM. There was no way I could access CWM. I even could not enter Android boot (don't know exactly how it is called, but it saved my TF101 more than once.)

So after 1/2 hour of unsuccessful trying to get to CWM, phone just shows logo for icyglitch kernel and went to boot again, I have seen that only option to do anything was Odin. I downloaded Odin, downloaded some 2.3.6 ROM and downloaded CWM for that rom.
First I had to find driver for phone. I remembered phone on ICS wants nexus drivers so I installed those, booted phone to download mode and flashed 2.3.6 rom with Odin.
Phone booted, boot animation was on screen, but it did not boot to working Android. I didn't care too much, just booted to download mode again, flashed CWM and now I had at least access to my sd card. Did all wipes again, flashed DOC again and went to bootloop (Icyglitch kernel logo) again.
....
So I repeated Odin procedure, and when I had working CWM I flashed good old ICSSGS 4.02. This one worked.

I had spent 4 hours to solve this problem mostly because I was not full prepared to flash.
-I had no working USB driver on PC
-I did not had Odin
-I do not have ADB installed. Even if I had it, I don't know much how to use it.
-I did not have any working 2.3.6 ROM WITH bootloader
-Nandroid backup... hmmmm... what is that? Bah, don't need it...

Luckily I flashed my phone so many times I already roughly know what to do, but I still have experienced my share of "OMGOMGOMGOMG".

My advice to new and seasoned flashers:

Don't be cocky. After million of successful flashes once will go wrong. If nothing else Murphy will kick in. And when something goes wrong, be sure that all that you need to rescue phone is on your HDD and you know WHERE it is and how to use it. And read guides. And when you finish reading read them again, then go to sleep and flash next day.

Now I'm even more satisfied with myself because I do not flash other people's phones. If it happens that I create a 400€ brick, it will be at least mine.

If this helps anyone to restore phone, click Thanks button :good:
 

topp10

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2009
89
21
Newcastle
I had the same problem today trying to flash aokp m6...

Got bootloop and then Odin was hanging at various points when I tried going back to stock GB.

I thought I was goosed but the good old SGS came through in the end!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
 

upichie

Senior Member
Nov 15, 2010
1,354
287
Flashing can be frightful. I'm sure every seasoned flasher here on XDA has had their fair share of OMG moments. I know I sure have.

Future advice: after you lost recovery, you didn't need to go back to GB. Stratosk (of Semaphore Kernel) has a .tar version of his ICS kernel that can be flashed with Odin, which will then restore your CWM. This would have been a faster, simpler fix for you. Keep that in mind for next time. :)
 
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R4DK0

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2011
165
65
Ljubljana
qrac.zapto.org
I would suggest you try SlimICS the next time you get sickend of (laggy) ROM. I for one, absolutely love SlimICS, and as all, it does have some drawbacks (no lag, though) when you're pimping it out too much.
 
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stenc55

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2010
579
141
Flashing can be frightful. I'm sure every seasoned flasher here on XDA has had their fair share of OMG moments. I know I sure have.

Future advice: after you lost recovery, you didn't need to go back to GB. Sratosk (of Semaphore Kernel) has a .tar version of his ICS kernel that can be flashed with Odin, which will then restore your CWM. This would have been a faster, simpler fix for you. Keep that in mind for next time. :)

Too bad I didn't know that. Somehow I was convinced that no ICS rom or kernel is flashable via Odin. But Later when everything worked and I finally had time to breathe I thought that I didn't need to go to GB. I think maybe only to flash any GB CWM with Odin would be enough. All I needed was working CWM, not entire rom.

Anyway, I'll try Slim now, let's hope I won't need to rescue phone again. ;)
 

bpp9

Member
Mar 10, 2011
10
1
I bricked my phone twice yesterday, trying to install a CM9. It was my first attempt to modify a phone. Nice start.
 

tt0204

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
216
25
Always brick my phone in the past, nearly one time a day:p
Well some tips for flashing:
- On stock ROMs, try flashing all partition firmware (i.e. 3 files in Odin) with re-partition checked before finding for help.
- Always backup you data with apps like Titanium backup, I don't usually use nandroid because it is not so flexible.
- Get GB bootloader before going to CM based ROMs, and go back to froyo bootloader if you want to have froyo back (search EzBoot for this).
- CM based ROMs and stock ROMs use a different filesystem, so flash all partition firmware before going back from CM to stock.
- Same reason, you will mostly get bootloops when going to CM ROMs. In this case, just hold the 3-button combo to enter recovery and flash it again.
- Same reason again, don't use CWM2 recovery to flash CM.
In case that anyone don't know, CM means CyanogenMod.

Hope this helps!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
 

stenc55

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2010
579
141
Always brick my phone in the past, nearly one time a day:p

Uauuu, and you still didn't have heart attack?

I'm not sure if the fact that I managed to rescue my phone is good. Now I still don't have reason to buy SGS II. :confused:
And yes, Slim is woking, you can see my new signature. :highfive:
 

tt0204

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
216
25
Managed to flash properly before I did :D
Wait at least until we get a working jelly bean before getting a new phone!

Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
 

Jazenz

Member
Mar 1, 2011
19
1
First time i flashed my phone was a heart in mouth moment when it boot looped for the first 2 or 3 times.
Swore I'd never flash my phone again. Over a year later and my phone has gone through countless changes and still going strong.

The only other issue I've had with customizing my phone is telling my flatmate about it. Problem being that he doesn't quite understand the concept of 'rooting' or 'flashing'. At least not in the geek sense of the words.
 

dreamer94

Senior Member
Jan 31, 2012
423
97
Ankara
Yesterday,i was reverting to stock from ics you know...And rooted JW4 with cf.then i wanted to flash semaphore's 2.7.4.I am %100 sure that there was nothing wrong.Just semaphore over cf.Did that ten times!... so here it is;
when flashing process started odin gave fail WHILE flashing zImage.not after or before.Just at the middle of flashing zImage.
I dunno why maybe that one was a random error of odin who nows....
Anyway after it said fail,phone shutted down itself from download mode..First thing that i tried,entering to recovery.But phone was not responding.No boot logo or..just black screen.

I took a deep breath.Restarted my pc while it is restarting i put out the battery from phone wait for 30sec.
Then after pc started up ,i opened odin and put the files etc etc.

Then magical thing happened :D
I tried directly to the d.mode it worked and flashed JVQ then got JW4 from kies
This was my story... :)

GT-I9000 cihazımdan Tapatalk 2 ile gönderildi
 
Last edited:

tt0204

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
216
25
Yesterday,i was reverting to stock from ics you know...And rooted JW4 with cf.then i wanted to flash semaphore's 2.7.4.I am %100 sure that there was nothing wrong.Just semaphore over cf.Did that ten times!... so here it is;
when flashing process started odin gave fail WHILE flashing zImage.not after or before.Just at the middle of flashing zImage.
I dunno why maybe that one was a random error of odin who nows....
Anyway after it said fail,phone shutted down itself from download mode..First thing that i tried,entering to recovery.But phone was not responding.No boot logo or..just black screen.

I took a deep breath.Restarted my pc while it is restarting i put out the battery from phone wait for 30sec.
Then after pc started up ,i opened odin and put the files etc etc.

Then magical thing happened :D
I tried directly to the d.mode it worked and flashed JVQ then got JW4 from kies
This was my story... :)

GT-I9000 cihazımdan Tapatalk 2 ile gönderildi

Actually boot directly into download mode without rebooting computer/phone will work:D
 

stenc55

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2010
579
141
I think we should start a membership here. Anyone who wants to join must expirience "OMG" factor for at least 20 min. I had it 4-5 times, if I count my hassling with Omnia too.
Isn't something interesting? I mean, look at us. We flash phones, sometimes we manage to make it useless, we spend hours for rescuing them, all that time we swear to god that we will never do that again, but 5 minutes after we manage to make our phones work we are ready for next flashing. Here in Slovenia we use to say that even donkey goes on ice only once, but looks like we newer learn...:eek:
 

slaphead20

Senior Member
Feb 13, 2011
11,309
4,718
Out there somewhere
My current favorite thread, it's refreshingly honest to see people laughing at themselves, and sharing their disasters, we all do it, in fact that's why we do it! Nice to see so much humility :D
 
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stenc55

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2010
579
141
About not bricking other people's phones....
Right now I'm in the process of bricking my boss's phone. He wants ICS on his Dell Streak 5, even if it is only pre-alpha :eek: ... Wish me luck.
 
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  • 7
    My 2 cents..

    I was using ICSSGS from 1st RC. But it becomes very laggy after 3-4 weeks, so factory reset every month was necessary. I decided to change ROM.
    I installed DOC's v12 ( I assume is is the same Doc that was cooking ROMs for my Omnia, and I was werry pleased with those ROMs). Did wipe, cleaned cache, cleaned Dalvik, formatted /system, flashed ROM, wipe again and it was working. But after two days it was still very laggy (talking about waiting for response for 3-5 seconds) so I wanted something faster. I had choose this Openkang milestone 6.

    And then the fun begins.

    Downloaded, copied to sd, booted to CWM, all wipes, flashed ROM, flashed gapps and went to bootloop. 3 button combo worked only for download mode, not for entering CWM. There was no way I could access CWM. I even could not enter Android boot (don't know exactly how it is called, but it saved my TF101 more than once.)

    So after 1/2 hour of unsuccessful trying to get to CWM, phone just shows logo for icyglitch kernel and went to boot again, I have seen that only option to do anything was Odin. I downloaded Odin, downloaded some 2.3.6 ROM and downloaded CWM for that rom.
    First I had to find driver for phone. I remembered phone on ICS wants nexus drivers so I installed those, booted phone to download mode and flashed 2.3.6 rom with Odin.
    Phone booted, boot animation was on screen, but it did not boot to working Android. I didn't care too much, just booted to download mode again, flashed CWM and now I had at least access to my sd card. Did all wipes again, flashed DOC again and went to bootloop (Icyglitch kernel logo) again.
    ....
    So I repeated Odin procedure, and when I had working CWM I flashed good old ICSSGS 4.02. This one worked.

    I had spent 4 hours to solve this problem mostly because I was not full prepared to flash.
    -I had no working USB driver on PC
    -I did not had Odin
    -I do not have ADB installed. Even if I had it, I don't know much how to use it.
    -I did not have any working 2.3.6 ROM WITH bootloader
    -Nandroid backup... hmmmm... what is that? Bah, don't need it...

    Luckily I flashed my phone so many times I already roughly know what to do, but I still have experienced my share of "OMGOMGOMGOMG".

    My advice to new and seasoned flashers:

    Don't be cocky. After million of successful flashes once will go wrong. If nothing else Murphy will kick in. And when something goes wrong, be sure that all that you need to rescue phone is on your HDD and you know WHERE it is and how to use it. And read guides. And when you finish reading read them again, then go to sleep and flash next day.

    Now I'm even more satisfied with myself because I do not flash other people's phones. If it happens that I create a 400€ brick, it will be at least mine.

    If this helps anyone to restore phone, click Thanks button :good:
    2
    Thankyou for being man enough to share this, I hope all noobs read this and start getting the message! :)

    Lol you were faster :).
    2
    Flashing can be frightful. I'm sure every seasoned flasher here on XDA has had their fair share of OMG moments. I know I sure have.

    Future advice: after you lost recovery, you didn't need to go back to GB. Stratosk (of Semaphore Kernel) has a .tar version of his ICS kernel that can be flashed with Odin, which will then restore your CWM. This would have been a faster, simpler fix for you. Keep that in mind for next time. :)
    1
    I would suggest you try SlimICS the next time you get sickend of (laggy) ROM. I for one, absolutely love SlimICS, and as all, it does have some drawbacks (no lag, though) when you're pimping it out too much.
    1
    My current favorite thread, it's refreshingly honest to see people laughing at themselves, and sharing their disasters, we all do it, in fact that's why we do it! Nice to see so much humility :D